Caught on video: how masked gangs are stealing data at Mumbai ATMs

The masked gang of ATM thieves, involved in stealing card data at an ATM kiosk in Agripada, was also involved in at least two more similar cases at Parel and Bhandup, respectively.

HT investigation has revealed that at least 73 persons lost over Rs. 17 lakh of their hard-earned money as the fraudsters emptied their accounts with cloned ATM cards prepared by the stolen data.

The Kalachowky police on Tuesday told HT that the gang plundered information from an ATM kiosk in Parel between the same period (March 26 to 30), before they targetted an Union Bank of India's ATM kiosk near Nair Hospital at Agripada. While they managed to steal information of 17 cards at Agripada, as many as 23 persons card data was stolen from the Parel kiosk. Prior to that in February this year, the gang had taken away data of 33 cards, given to customers by a nationalised bank, from an ATM kiosk in Bhandup.

In all the instances, the thieves had masked their faces with surgical masks (with baseball caps) while going about their innovative con act with a view to conceal their identity. The withdrawals were made at ATM booths in Ghodbunder-Thane and Kalyan, source added.

DCP zone III Vinayak Deshmukh said, “We are in process of getting the CCTV feed of all those ATM booths which was hacked into and used by crooks to withdrawn money, from the respective banks.”